What does this chart tell you? It tells you that it doesn’t matter which party is in power, avoidable deaths and disease – the purpose of any health service – have declined spectacularly since 1990. These are due to improvements in medical technology, public health and the ban on smoking. A juggernaut of scientific advance that has swept aside all attempts by ministers, … [Read on]

Everyone is self deluded to a certain extent, just to keep going in life, but the severely myopic fantasist can be an irritating companion and sometimes dangerous. In government there seem to be a lot of people who cling to extreme fantasy, even in the face of extremist violence. This Sunday, 18th January, we had Home Secretary Teresa May telling … [Read on]

Everyone is self deluded to a certain extent, just to keep going in life, but the severely myopic fantasist can be an irritating companion and sometimes dangerous. In government there seem to be a lot of people who cling to extreme fantasy, even in the face of extremist violence. This Sunday, 18th January, we had Home Secretary Teresa May telling … [Read on]

We gleaned some illuminating insights into public figures – including the sometimes predictably despicable nature of the usual suspects – in the aftermath of the Paris slaughter. And understand that I am now moving beyond discussion of the normal reactions of grief, anger, insecurity and reconciliation. Firstly, Obama is as autistic as ever – failing to either attend in person … [Read on]

In my Midlands primary school I was often in a state of excruciating embarrassment. Children of course mature emotionally and intellectually un-evenly at different times, most girls faster than most boys. I always liked art of all kinds and it irritated me that most children in my class fell about laughing at the sight of a nude Venus or a … [Read on]

Families lack a sense of togetherness these days. John Cleese tells how people come up to him – not just to compliment him on the ingenious scripts and ensemble cast of Fawlty Towers – but to mention how his 70s comedy classic united the family, if only for half an hour. Nowadays everyone does their own thing; one person is … [Read on]

I have recently left London and last night I regretted it. I wanted to be in Trafalgar Square with hundreds of other people, joining thousands in Paris, gathered together in protest against yesterday’s murders, but also in silent support of free-speech. As people stood in the open, lit candles and carried flowers, the mood was contemplative and sad, and some … [Read on]

There is trouble in China with their Muslim minority the Uighur. The video posted online last month looks much like ones from Middle East jihadist groups. It shows what appears to be a man making a suitcase bomb and grainy footage of an explosion at a crowded railway station here. The soundtrack plays an Arabic chant inciting holy war. The … [Read on]

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Myles Harris is the editor of The Salisbury Review. Well struck in years, he remembers when hangings were announced in received English by a man wearing a bow tie on the BBC Home Service, midwives rode bicycles, Lady Almoners looked after the deserving poor in hospitals and children were separated by the 11 plus into sheep and goats.

Theodore Dalrymple is a retired prison doctor and psychiatrist. A highly popular journalist, he writes for publications including The Times, The British Medical Journal, The Observer, Daily Telegraph, The Spectator and The Salisbury Review. He is also contributing editor to City Journal, where he is Dietrich Weismann Fellow. His books include Life at the Bottom, Our Culture, What’s Left of It and Spoilt Rotten.

Jane Kelly worked for the Daily Mail for 15 years as a leading celebrity interviewer. Among her interviewees were Hillary Clinton, Jack Nicholson, Russell Crowe, George Clooney, Michael Portillo, Tony Benn, Jeffrey Archer, Edwina Curry, Scarlett Johansson, Arthur Scargill, Vanessa Redgrave and Elizabeth Taylor. She has written two books; a biography of Colin Farrell, and Inside – an account of working as a teacher in Wormwood Scrubs Prison, London.